November - Panun Kashmir

Kashmir Sentinel November 20024 Ahad War deserves a memorialBy Kuldeep RainaIf Kashmiriat denotes religious toleration and pluralistic co-existence, then surely Kashmir has remainedbereft of it for most of the medieval and the present times. Rajataranginis of Pandit Jonaraja and Srivaraand the chronicles penned down by Muslim historians - Tarikh-e-Hassan, Baharistan Shahi, Tohft-TulAhbab speak about torture, killings, forced conversion, exile of native Hindus besides the pillage andplunder of their shrines. Whenever Kashmiris received accolades for practising Kashmiriat, it has beenthe individuals, rather than the society at large that has retrieved ‘Kashmiriat’.Nowhere in the sub-continent has history been abused so blatantly as in Kashmir. To borrow a phrasefrom Edward P. Thompson, the great British historian distortion of history is an nationalised industryhere. The trials and tribulations the Kashmiri Pandits went through in the wake of tribal raid in 1947 hasstill remained under warps due to the compulsions of the ruling class in Delhi and Srinagar. At this crucialjuncture of history, when Kashmiri Pandit community is languishing in exile and stands disinherited bythe majority community in Valley, introspection on what went wrong in the past would help draw lessonsfor the future. It is time we remember our saviours. During the tribal raid, Pandits' trauma and agonywould have been much-less had the majority community demonstrated secular behaviour. Ahad war’srole amply testifies it.Ahad war belonged to Chogal village, 2 kms from Handwara. He was numberbar of the village. When theraid began he had decided that he would defend Pandits to the last and stood by his word. The Sarpanchof the village was Gh. Qadir Masala. He was an opportunist, who always joined the winning side.In this overwhelming Muslim village (250 families), 22 Sikh families lived on one side of the Pohru river,close to Sopore-Kupwara highway. Pandit Mohalla was located on the other side of Pohru. There werenine Pandit families. One Kanth Koul had come from Srinagar to try his luck at business. He ran a shop inChogal. This family’s descendants today run a famous business concern.“Janki Nath - Mahendra Nath”There is a reference to village Chogal in medieval chronicles. Chogal was very famous because of atemple called Bomar. It used to attract big crowds of people. At the instance of an Iraqi missionary thistemple was demolished. Locals under the leadership of Ahald war had resisted this then. This was in earlyseventeenth century.Tribal Raid 1947-48:Chogal Pandits learnt about tribal raid from Amarchand Pandita, who had gone to participate in the baratof late Pt. Moti Lal Kuchroo of Baramulla. At venukur, the barat was Waylaid and attacked by raiders.Eight members of the barat party were killed. Amarchand, who too was in barat party, had a providentialescape. He reached home safely to tell that raiders were killing Pandits. The Pandits of the village,frightened by this first hand account of killings went to seek the advice of Ahad war. He extendedcomplete sympathy and assured all possible help to save them. Ahad war arranged guard for Pandithouses during night.When the D-day arrived, raiders guided by three locals Imamdin, Mahd Teli and Shamsuddin Khandescended on Sikh part of Chogal. Pandits were in their houses and were caught unawares. To give timeto Pandits to flee, Ahad war devised a strategy. Ahad war took Moshar Nath, secretary of Panchayat alongwith him besides few local Muslims and went to meet raiders, before they would enter Pandit part ofChogal. To hoodwink raiders, Moshar Nath was given a green flag to hold aloft. Sikh houses had alreadybeen set on fire. Raiders, to whom loot was more important than anything else, caught hold of MosharNath and threatened to kill him. He handed over all gold and the money he carried with him. Ahad wargot worried that raiders would not leave Pandits. In broken Kashmiri he pleaded before raiders to sparePandits. War told them that these people had become Shaikhs and have accepted Islam.Panun Kashmir Publication 4-11PDF created with FinePrint pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com